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This is the house where slaves were forced to live under the stairs

They were trafficked from Europe then forced to work as slaves in homes, car washes and meat packing plants

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by Stuart Abel, Carl Eve

11:33, 12 Sep 2017Updated11:35, 12 Sep 2017

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How evil gang kept slaves in squalid conditions in Plymouth

Slaves were forced to live in garages and under stairs while they were forced to work in car washes and meat packing factories, or live as domestic servants.

Four women have now been jailed for more than 20 years for trying to derail a court case securing justice for the modern-day slaves.

Cruel gangmasters trafficked vulnerable drug users and homeless people from the Czech Republic to Devon where they lived in squalor while their 'bosses' raked in cash.

Some were forced to become domestic slaves at the gang members' homes - including one on Ford Park Road in Plymouth.

(Image: Devon & Cornwall Police)

Police have released images from inside the property which lays bare the horrendous conditions the victims were made to endure, reports plymouthherald .

Makeshift beds set up in tiny spaces under the stairs were all they could call their homes.

The evil slavemasters are now behind bars and were back before a judge in Plymouth this week to be sentenced for perverting the course of justice - after trying to bully witnesses into lying for them.

The gang recruited desperate and vulnerable men and promised them a better life in Plymouth – but treated them as servants and pocketed most of their wages and benefits.

(Image: Devon & Cornwall Police)

At least eight victims were forced to sleep in a garage, in a cupboard or on mattresses on the floor while being fed Pot Noodles or leftovers.

One was made to cut the lawn with a knife and spent hours cleaning his master’s car, a jury decided.

The Roma family, related by blood or marriage, put their victims to work in factories or at car washes and controlled their finances.

At least one man was hit with a chair and baseball bat and another said he was forced to shoplift – pushing trollies of goods from supermarkets.

As part of their humiliation, some were ordered to use the garden as a toilet or pay a pound to defecate.

Four women who were involved in the conspiracy to derail the case were yesterday jailed for more than 20 years.

(Image: John Allen)

Plymouth Crown Court heard how the conspiracy was described as “one of the most involved and expensive” to have come to court and prosecutors admitted they had difficulties finding a comparable case in British legal history.

He described how their efforts to force a key prosecution witness to lie and retract his sworn statements were “protracted and determined” and estimations of the costs incurred by taxpayers for the collapsed trials were in excess of £1m.

All four women have pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. In addition, Tancosova Senior – described by police investigator as the ‘Matriarch of the Tancos Organised Crime Group’ – pleaded guilty to an additional charge of perverting the course of justice which resulted in a human trafficking case against another of her daughters being withdrawn.

She admitted threatening a potential prosecution witness into retracting his evidence which he’d given police between October 2014 and March 15.

Tancosova Junior also faces an additional charge of perverting the course of justice after she tried to convince a jury mid-trial that new evidence would be forthcoming which would clear her name – while it was still being concocted by other members of the organised crime family based in the Czech Republic.

One was 37-year-old Ruzena Tancosova (Junior) who was jailed for six and a half years in November last year following a second trial which lasted eight weeks.

Her brother Petr Tancos, their cousin Martin Tancos and their partners Nela Dzurkova and Katerina Kurlova were all convicted of human trafficking offences.

Tancosova (Junior) appeared in court during the latest conspiracy sentencing via video link with HMP Peterborough, her newborn baby beside her in a pram.

Her mother, also called Ruzena Tancosova, aged 56, her sister 35-year-old Lenka Cmejlova and 42-year-old Libuse Sindelarova sat beside each other in the dock, listening intently to proceedings via an interpreter. All three pleaded guilty to the charges.